


between sands and stardust

by thelabours



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 10:39:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9380813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelabours/pseuds/thelabours
Summary: One is a miracle worker. The other is pure hard work.It’s always been this way.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I noticed there was embarrassingly little oiten content so here I am

One is a miracle worker. The other is pure hard work. 

It’s always been this way.

I.

Oikawa knows he can be intense sometimes. It’s not news to him. Even back in his high school volleyball club days, he was a pretty focused guy, choosing to sit aside in concentration during time outs, replaying the strategies played out on court and considering counter attacks.

So it doesn’t come as a surprise to him when people tell him he stares off into the distance with a certain degree of ferocity. He’s pretty sure some of his juniors are more than a little terrified.

On court though, he was a force to be reckoned with. His monster precision with his serve, and all round ability to pull 100% strength from his team mates made him an ideal player. It didn’t help that he was pretty tall, and could therefore be useful for strategic blocks when he was in the front line, and his steady posture paved way for clean receives. Reliability and hard work were something he’s always lived by, because these things didn’t come naturally. Years of staying back at the gym to polish his tosses, his serves, made the uphill battles his close-bosom friends. 

He knew where his limits stood, but the urge to be better, to constantly improve, to be the best exceeded his capacity for common sense and general wellbeing. He knew wasn’t completely talentless, but talent was something one had to hone, like a knife against whetstone, it was something one made bloom.

_And if you were at it anyway, why not go all out?_

This was the philosophy by which Tendou first met him, late after practice one day at the Chuo University Gymnasium assigned to the men’s volleyball team. Tendou had forgotten his knee pads (which Semi had lent him for the day, after pleading him for several hours) at the gym. Fearing his wrath, Tendou had made his way back to the gym to retrieve the damned knee pads. His plan? To infiltrate the gym and sneakily locate them with all the stealth and speed his lanky ass body could muster, pretty much like a ninja. Or better yet, a ninja turtle. His 19 year old self laughs at this.

The familiar thudding sound from the presumed empty gym surprises him. He peeps through the glass door, to see one of Oikawa’s nightmarish serve. Having been on the receiving end of quite a few, he sees that even in the few months that they haven’t played against each other, Oikawa has improved, and exponentially so. Don’t get him wrong though, he doesn’t like Oikawa one bit, not when he constantly insults one of his best friends, but he starts to understand him, if just a little. 

Not wanting to reveal himself, he goes on to do exactly that when his foot collides with the stairs near the entrance.

Oikawa’s head turns so fast, Tendou’s sure it’s given him whiplash.

“Oikawa-kun, don’t you think it’s late? I thought they locked up. What are you up to?” Tendou starts off, lamely. _Wow ok @brain thanks a bunch_ , he thinks.

“Just one more.” Almost whispering to himself with intense eyes staring at Tendou, Oikawa turns, launches the ball, and jumps

only to land a few feet away with his knee searing with pain, an Tendou by his side in minutes, hand on shoulder, rubbing comforting circles to the tune of stifled sobs and the start of an unlikely friendship. Because he may be an asshole but he's not campaigning for the douchebag-of-the-year.

 

II.

If you want to know what Tendou’s laugh sounds like, ask his friends. However, you’ll receive different replies depending on who you ask. 

Semi says it sounds annoying (mainly because Tendou laughs at his fashion sense. “What fashion sense?” you hear in the background).

Ushijima will reply that it sounds easy-going. Or maybe that’s a side effect of what he feels.

Daichi thinks it sounds like trouble brewing, while Kuroo will counter that saying, no, it sounds perfectly innocent, while he exchanges mischievous glances with Tendou.

Bokuto will laugh at that and say its companionable while Suga mutters darkly about how wrong he is and that Tendou’s cackles are an omen for the apocalypse. (Bokuto hoots loudly at this).

But Oikawa will look you dead in the eyes with that faraway focused look in his eye and say something sappy, tightening his hand around Tendou’s while he laughs, because Oikawa describes it as mellifluous, and because he is Oikawa, he has to be a pretentious prick who knows maybe 9 grand sounding English words.

Tendou will laugh harder at this, squeezing his hand back. And Oikawa will fall in love a little more.

III.

If anyone’s surprised that Tendou’s playing on the Chuo University intercollegiate volleyball team, it’s Tendou.

Truthfully, after his last high school match against Karasuno (their captain is now on his team, don’t ask him, he doesn’t understand it either), he hadn’t expected to play volleyball competitively again.

It was Oikawa who persuaded (threatened, cajoled, wheedled, bribed, whatever you want to call it) him into it. Being part of the intramural team suited Tendou just fine, meeting once a week seemed like heaven after the daily gruelling practices of the Shiratorizawa Boys’ Volleyball Club (he says a quick prayer for Shirabu and the rest of the team).

Standing next to the coach, watching the first practice set, he saw Oikawa come up to serve. Unlike their first meeting, Oikawa’s full of confidence when he serves (he’s not their official setter yet, acting only as a pinch hitter because he’s still in his first year at college). 

Tendou watched, enraptured, awestruck, as Oikawa’s infamously pin-point serve landed right between the opposing team’s libero and spiker. It’s not the first time he’s seeing this specific serve, jump serves are Oikawa’s brand name weapon, something he used to his advantage back when Shiratorizawa and Aoba Johsai were at each other’s throats during tournaments. 

Later, Tendou didn’t have any words to describe the rush of pride he felt when he saw Oikawa turn and smile where he knew Tendou would be watching. He only hoped Oikawa could see how much he loved him (yeah, he doesn’t believe it either. He advises to not question his feelings.)

So when Oikawa asked him to join the Intercollegiate team, he agreed, if only to see the boy he loves very much doing something he loves very much (and no, it’s nothing naughty, thank you very much, because Tendou still blushes when Oikawa holds his hand in public), he agrees without much protest. He did put up some drama, he had a reputation to uphold, c’mon.

IV.

You’d think that these two getting together would be pretty straightforward, but we forget that they’re Tendou and Oikawa, who veer towards things which scream, well, Tendou and Oikawa.

The amount of misunderstanding and confusion made it comically 'almost Shakespearean' as Suga put it (yes, the pretentious rascal was a literature student, can you imagine?)

There were nights when Oikawa would come home to their shared apartment, and flop down in Iwaizumi’s lap and cry about how the middle blocker of his dreams _called his hair ridiculous, iwa-chan, can you believe the fucking loser? I can’t believe I have to hear this from someone who had a bowl cut until a few years ago, the absolute nerv-_

At which point Iwaizumi would get up, tipping Oikawa out of his lap.

He would offer some words of solace but his idiot of a best friend was probably already calling Suga to ask for his esteemed opinion. _Well, good luck to him. Oikawa, that is,_ he means, laughing to himself.

Suga was already on the verge of screaming because Tendou had, yet again, ruined another one of his date nights. It’s not often he sees Daichi, what with his studying hours and Daichi’s volleyball practices. So when Tendou calls him, complaining about Oikawa, Suga’s told (mildly bullied) him to stop blowing up his phone with one word messages (“so” “I think” “Oikawa’s mad at me” “and” “idk” “maybe??? I” “screwed up idk” “idk koushi” and “help”) and apologize to Oikawa about whatever stupid comment he’s made about Oikawa’s hair.

Tendou had squawked indignantly but had put the phone down.

So when Suga’s phone buzzed, the caller ID displaying “Shitooru <3”, he’d smiled sweetly at Daichi, and picked up only to threateningly tell Oikawa that if he’d called about Tendou he could— **(the text has been erased by Sawamura Daichi to keep this PG-13).**

(Daichi has nightmares.)

It was worth it, though, when they got together after finally sorting out their problems (all by themselves, can you believe?) It’s not like they’ve stopped calling Iwaizumi and Suga (and by extension, Daichi) when things go wrong, but the “Oiten Support Group” lives up to its name and provides support served fresh with threats, tears, and resigned sighs. And milk bread with a side of chocolate ice cream.

V.  
Oikawa is impulsive. It’s endearing. Stargazing, 2 am heart-to-hearts (about extraterrestrial conspiracies, what else?), spontaneous eskimo kisses and humming shitty pretentious English indie pop music to himself that he knows if he gets the lyrics wrong, no one will correct him.

Tendou, not to be outshone by a bratty boyfriend, is even more impetuous, if equally endearing. Analyzing anime at ass o’clock (“Tooru, you _have_ to watch Serial Experiments Lain!” “No way! It’s too creepy for me.” “And you alien bullshit isn’t?” “Hey, watch it!” followed by a glaring match in which Tendou’s sadistic streak wins out), afternoon trips to the manga store, eating ice cream straight out of the tub, stealing Tooru’s sweaters, sharing his overly-sugary-and-extremely-unfit-for-his-athletic-lifestyle breakfast while trash talking Tooru’s granola (“It’s healthy!” “It’s shit.” “Watch your fucking language.”)

The court bears invisible markings of their first ever official practice match together. Oikawa is a massive douchebag and never lays off (“Are you nervous? It's OK you can tell me, I’m your senpai, after all.”) Like, no, Tooru, you’re _dead_ if you don’t quit with that creepy smile and annoying attitude. Tendou, for his part is equally dickheaded, and loves riling Oikawa up (“So, Wakatoshi’s on the other team.” “Shut up.” “OK then I’ll just cheer for him, instead of my _boyfriend_.” “SHUT UP.”)

It goes as smoothly as you can imagine. Tendou blocks with the grace of a monster—the guess monster, he will correct—and Oikawa serves like a demon possessed. Their new quick was coming along well, it even scored a point. When true hard work is coupled with instinct— the air thick with competition not just between the two participating teams, but also between Oikawa and Tendou themselves—the crowd takes notice.

In the end, Oikawa’s perseverance and Tendou’s intuition are not enough to win. They give each other space with a half hearted ‘we’ll win next time, this is just the first match’. Tendou goes over with Semi to congratulate Ushijima while Oikawa searches for Iwaizumi’s familiar face to whine at. The loss stings. 

Another thing about Oikawa, he has an actual honest-to-god fan club. You’d think people were old enough to forgo such childish behaviour but _oh no no_ , the Oikawa Tooru fan club exists and has swarmed Oikawa, as Tendou looks back to tell Oikawa he’ll be home late. His heart breaks a little (not that he’d admit, he’s not _jealous ___or anything) when he sees Oikawa smile, and talk about something mundane to a girl with pretty brown hair. _Really, these people have no tact they just lost a match what the fuck._ Tendou turns and leaves.

He doesn’t see Oikawa stare after him, with a little more than longing in his eyes. 

Later that night, when he comes home, he shuffles into the bedroom, maybe a little more ashamed than that afternoon. He climbs onto the bed and whispers Oikawa’s name. 

"Are you awake?” 

“Yes, dickhead. I was wondering if you’d come home.” 

“Why wouldn’t i?” 

“You left pretty quickly.” 

“I—never mind. Are you feeling better?” 

“Now I am” 

“Aww Tooru, you can say you missed me.” 

“Fuck off.” 

“Love you.” 

Oikawa snorts, “Aww Sacchan, you’re so cute.” 

“Shut up, you fucking asshole.” 

“Love you.” 

“Fuck off. Dealing with you is like herding cats.” 

"Did Kurocchi have something to do with that observation?" 

Tendou kicks him off the bed. Oikawa pulls him down with him. The melancholy of the afternoon is forgotten as laughter rings in tickles and happiness. 

And they stay there, despite the tiredness, whispering about secrets untold until the sun comes up and peeks through the window panes bathing everything in pale yellows and oranges and pinks. They look at one another, each thinking how ethereal the other looks in the shower of warm gold and rosy lilac. 

The moment is ruined when Oikawa turns red and talks about Rayleigh’s scattering principle. He is kicked out of the blanket nest they’ve made. 

(“Tooru, I love you, but if you infodump on me at _4 am_ I _will_ cut you.”) 

**Author's Note:**

> i honestly and truly believe that their relationship stands on "Love you" and "Fuck off" there's no in between


End file.
